The Status of the ‘Hong Kong Hard Fork’: An Update

Last February, in the midst of Bitcoin’s long-lasting block size dispute, a group of Bitcoin Core developers, Bitcoin miners, and representatives from the Bitcoin industry met in Hong Kong. Sealing their position with a signed letter, the attendees agreed to run only Bitcoin Core-compatible consensus software for the “foreseeable future.” This avoided a potential hard fork as proposed by Bitcoin Classic or Bitcoin Unlimited — at least temporarily.

On their own behalf, the Bitcoin Core developers present at the meeting — Cory Fields, Johnson Lau, Luke Dashjr, Matt Corallo, and Peter Todd — agreed to propose a block size hard fork, with a deadline set three months after the release of SegregatedWitness. If accepted by other Bitcoin Core developers and the broader Bitcoin community, the proposal could pave the way to a block size limit increase.